“It’s unreal — the earth just wallered up,” says the mayor and fire chief of a Texas town about a large sinkhole.
Question: “Wallered”? Is this (a) a neologism, (b) regional dialect (c) a subtle swipe at Waller County, Texas, or (d) some other word misunderstood by the writer for The New York Times? (There might be an (e), but I can’t think of one at the mo.)
Reader Comments:
As someone who uses the word “wallerd” regularly, I can safely say that it has no connection to the Texan’s use of the word.
“Wallerd” means that a hole, thru which a rod, bolt, or cupped ball joint passes, has become worn out of round.
Thats why we invented grease.
“your car’s steering wobbles and shimmys because the tie rod end cups are wallerd out”
I think the Teaxan might have basterdized the the words ‘swelled, swallowed and welled’ to come up with his unique version.
And they don’t know how to BBQ either.
I’d say he’s “verbing” the word wallow (as in a hog-wallow, i.e. a mudhole) and the spelling is phonetic.
From Urbandictionary.com -
1. Wallered
Out of round. Worn oversize.
That there hole’s done wallered out.
From TFProject.org -
(a discussion of local dialects and pidgin, this filed under “Texas Talk")
waller
as far as I can tell, this is an extremely useful, if somewhat vague verb of many uses. It’s usually used as a past participle. “The wheel was wallered out.” or “The Dillo List wallered down an gave that little nawthun lady a bunch of Texas Tawk.”
If it did not already have a meaning within Texas dialect, it could also have been a portmanteau word, also known as a Frankenword, where two sounds and meanings are combined, as “mimsy”, meaning miserable and flimsy.
Wallered is like swallered, as in the hole swallered up cars, tractors, and buildings, and wallered, as in the hole increased in size and volume and irregular shape....ah, never mind....
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